Today’s Top Stories
1. Two Israelis stabbed by Palestinian terrorists died of their wounds yesterday. Staff Sgt. Almog Shiloni, 20, of Modiin, was attacked near the Tel Aviv train station. His killer, Nur a-Din Hashiya, is affiliated with Hamas, and is now hospitalized in Tel Aviv (a minor story of its own).
In the other attack, Dalia Lamkus died of her injuries after being stabbed at the entrance to Alon Shvut. Her killer, Maher Hamdi Hashalamun, of Hebron, was affiliated with Islamic Jihad, and died after being shot by a security guard.The 25-year-old Lamkus survived a previous stabbing attack in the same area in 2006.
Shiloni and Lamkus were both laid to rest today.
2. Ban Ki-moon appointed members of a commission tasked with investigating attacks on UN facilities in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge. The inquiry will be led by Patrick Cammaert, a retired Dutch general.
In addition, added Mr. Dujarric, the Board will also “review and investigate incidents in which weapons were found to be present on United Nations premises.”
3. A Detroit jury found Palestinian terrorist Rasmieh Odeh guilty of withholding from US immigration authorities that she had been convicted and imprisoned for her role to two Israeli bombings in 1969. Press reports say the 67-year-old Odeh faces up to 10 years in prison, deportation, and be stripped of her US citizenship.
4. Losing Control of the News: It’s a parent’s worst nightmare. My daughter called me. “Dad, there’s been a terrorist attack at my school.”
5. New York Times Headline Fail: Palestinians “Suspected” in Terror Attacks: Why did the New York Times change its headline following two terror attacks, to suggest that Palestinians were only “suspected” of murdering two Israelis?
6. Vote for This Year’s Dishonest Reporting Award: It’s that time of the year. Nominate this year’s worst news service or journalist and make your voice heard.
Israel and the Palestinians
• The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz report that the IDF is boosting security forces in the West Bank. More on the tensions at the Times of Israel.
• Young, single, lone wolves: What did the six Palestinian terrorists of recent days have in common?
• An explosion at the Kerem Shalom crossing killed a Palestinian and injured two others during a fuel transfer. According to media reports, Israeli and Palestinian authorities believe the blast was the result of a technical malfunction, not terror.
• That voice of moderation, Marwan Barghouti — often referred to as the Palestinian Mandela — called on Palestinians to continue using “general and military force” against Israel.
• At a deceptively serene Temple Mount, in the eye of the storm
• Hezbollah’s smuggling weapons to Brazil and gaining strength in Latin America too.
• While a small handful of Israeli Arabs have taken up arms to fight with ISIS, a Canadian-Israeli woman who once served in the IDF reportedly flew to Syria via Iraq to join Kurds fighting against ISIS. Reuters picked up on Israeli media reports.
• The Guardian picked up on a report (pdf format) on anti-Semitism in Australia attributing “hostile” and “inflammatory” media coverage of the Gaza conflict to a rise in assaults, hate speech and harassment Down Under.
It is likely that much of the overall increase in the number of antisemitic incidents, year on year, was due to hostile media and other reaction to the 2014 Israel-Gaza war (Operation Protective Edge), which lasted for 50 days in July and August during the year in review . . . Operation Protective Edge elicited sustained mainstream media coverage, often of a highly emotive if not inflammatory character, and a torrent of overtly antisemitic commentary on social media.
Commentary/Analysis
• Gen. Martin Dempsey undermines Obama administration’s criticism of Israeli actions in Gaza, points out David Bernstein.
• Bret Stephens (Wall St. Journal via Google News) ponders what would happen if the US and Iran actually reached a nuclear deal.
The avalanche of fine print will help convey an appearance of meticulousness and transparency. If this were a nuclear deal between the U.S. and, say, Finland, no doubt it would be so.
But we’re talking about Iran, meaning the abundance of detail will serve a more obfuscatory function. The Obama administration will count on a broad measure of public ignorance and media credulity, meaning it can sell a deal by citing experts who happen to agree with its conclusions. Anyone want to have a debate about how much U-235 dances on the head of an Iranian SWU?
• A staff-ed in The Economist weighs in on Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount.
• Israel is losing Europe’s goodwill, even Germany’s argues David Gardner (Financial Times via Google News).
• For more commentary/analysis, see David Horovitz (Looming Iran deal spells the empowering of evil), Sherri Mandell (What the media didn’t tell you about Dalia), Avi Issacharoff (As attacks spread, Israel sees Abbas as perfect scapegoat), Alan Dershowitz (Amnesty’s cynical anti-Israel games), Gary Ackerman (Blaming Israel’s the cool thing to do), Zalman Shoval (The construction censure reflex), and a New York Daily News staff-ed slamming the latest Palestinian terror.
Rest O’ the Roundup
• At least four nuclear scientists were killed in Damascus. One may have been Iranian. Yossi Melman wants to pre-empt the budding conspiracy theories blaming Israel.
The men were gunned down on a bus in an area where there was no fighting, suggesting they were the target of the attack.
• How ISIS beat and brainwashed boy hostages
FeaturedImage: CC BY-NC-SA flickr/M.; Temple Mount CC BY-NC-SA flickr/Jordan Chark
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the Israel Daily News Stream on Facebook.
